Magical Product Swap

This is the first time I've participated in the product swap hosted by my my friend  Jessica over at Mrs. Stanford's Class. It's a great way to spotlight some amazing things that are being created by fellow teachers. Let me tell you, I lucked out with my partner!

I got to review this Communities pack created by Halle. She blogs over at Across the Hall in Second with her friend Jenna. Love the look and feel of their blog too, super cute!

The more I looked through this pack, the more excited I got with how well it fits into what we're doing right now in class. I'm in the middle of a postcard/letter writing project and we just finished our Me on the Map projects for this year. Well, this unit teaches about the three main types of communities: rural, urban and suburban through three kids who write letters to your class to tell about the places they live. Perfect! 

 

There are also some great picture vocabulary cards for all three communities. This would make a great center activity or for groups to work on in a jigsaw method and then share out.

I love these posters. She has included two for each type of community - one with the student who writes the letter to your class and one without. There are also cute graphic organizers for each each community as well.

There are printables for each type of community for your students to use to write their own friendly letter back to the fictional student. Love the checklist rubric!

Halle added several additional printables as well. My kids are going to love cutting the pictures out of magazines! I'll be sure to blog about that when we get up to that part.

And she finished off this super pack with an assessment that I really found to be very comprehensive and learning style-friendly.

I am always looking for great social studies resources. I know my strengths for creating things and social studies is NOT one of them so I am always so happy to find great teacher created resources to fill that need. What I especially loved about Halle's pack was that it was big-kid enough for my smart second graders without being over their heads. That's a hard balance to strike and to me, she nailed it. I'm so glad I took part in this swap because it's the first time I was introduced to Halle, her cute blog and her great products!

Halle and I are also throwing a giveaway together. Just click {HERE} to head over to her blog to enter to win this great unit I just reviewed along with my ELA CCSS Assessment Pack and my January Printables Pack. We're also both throwing a sale at our TpT stores today and tomorrow. Click {HERE} to visit hers and {HERE} to visit mine.

Be sure to check out all of the other great swaps - lots of my friends are also having sales and giveaways too!